DESCRIPTION: Optical holography has been applied to non-invasive clinical diagnosis and monitoring of Dental and oral/facial pathology, but has been sharply limited in its usefulness by its requirements of high laser coherence. absolute stability of setup. and wet processing of holograms. Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a shearographic micro-optic camera as a novel means of non-invasive Dental evaluation and characterization based on shearing speckle interferometry, miniature camera imaging, and proprietary neural network image processing. The innovation in this concept is the use of shearography to avoid the need for high stability, high temporal coherence, and wet processing. Nearfield shearography will have high spatial resolution, and the neural network will perform real-time data processing and display. The unique high resolution. real-time operation. low cost. and miniaturization will make this device attractive to a large commercial market in Dental and clinical applications. In Phase 1. POC will develop a miniature shearographic micro-optic camera (SMOC) with fiber light delivery. a micro-CCD imaging component. and neural network. It will be capable of distinguishing among tooth enamel, cementum, dentine, pulp, and soft tissue. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: This compact, low-cost, high resolution non-invasive shearography device will represent a technological breakthrough not only for oral diagnostics but also for biomedical imaging in general. Because of its high resolution, real-time operation, and immunity to vibration, it will also have wide applications beyond the medical field, particularly for industrial diagnostics. High-strength aerospace composite material evaluation and testing as well as weld and pipe defect inspection are areas where it will be particularly welcome.